The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Osteospermum plant botanically known as Osteospermum ecklonis and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Balostlueye’.
The new cultivar originated in a controlled breeding program in Santa Paula, Calif. during July 2011. The objective of the breeding program was the development of Osteospermum cultivars that are freely flowering with unique flower coloration and a freely branching, upright-mounded growth habit.
The new Osteospermum cultivar is the result of cross-pollination. The female (seed) parent of the new cultivar is the proprietary Osteospermum ecklonis breeding selection coded 49249-5, not patented, characterized by its dark yellow and lavender colored inflorescences, medium green-colored foliage, and moderately vigorous, compact-mounded growth habit. The male (pollen) parent of the new cultivar is the proprietary Osteospermum ecklonis breeding selection coded 49305-4, not patented, characterized by its light yellow-colored inflorescences that age to a frosted purple, medium green-colored foliage, and moderately vigorous, mounded growth habit. The new cultivar was discovered and selected as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the above stated cross-pollination during April 2012 in a controlled environment in Santa Paula, Calif.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal stem cuttings since April 2012 in Santa Paula, Calif., Arroyo Grande Calif., and West Chicago, Ill. has demonstrated that the new cultivar reproduces true to type with all of the characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of such asexual propagation.